And that scared the ever-loving hell out of me.
I hoped he meant the sincerity in his voice toward my daughter and wasn’t nice to her just because another person was present. That would gut me.
Ivy blew him a kiss.
Matty caught it. Right there in his palm.
He looked startled that he did. Looked like he did it out of instinct and didn’t know what to do with it. But he didn’t let it fall.
He didn’t let my daughter’s kiss fall.
Just gave a quiet, almost breathless, “Take care, then.”
And left.
The door jingled again behind him, cheerful as ever.
I watched the door long after it shut, like I could still feel him on the other side. My palms were sweaty. My chest tight.
Ivy looked up at me proudly. “I did it, Daddy.”
“You did.” I brushed a kiss to the top of her head. “You did amazing.”
But even with her small arms hugging me and her glittery eyes sparkling up at me, I couldn’t stop the tremble that ran through me.
Because even though he treated me like shit, Matty Magnuson was just nice to my daughter. And I fell a little more in love with him.
6
MATTY
The sun hadn’t even climbed halfway up the sky, and already I was sweating. Not from work. Not yet. Just from standing near the barn, watching Hudson Granger walk like he owned the place.
Like he belonged here.
It pissed me off how natural he looked. Clean jeans, scuffed boots that hadn’t seen mud yet today, a plain dark blue tee that stretched across the solid wall of his chest, and a smile he wore for Ozzie like he was the solution to the world’s food crisis. Ivy clung to him, sleepy but smiling, one arm looped around his neck, like she’d been born knowing he’d never drop her. Apparently, Ozzie had offered to watch Ivy while he was working.
Hudson looked way too easy on my ranch. Like we hadn’t flirted, touched, and fucked on this land. Like the memories meant nothing to him. Like none of it had ever happened.
He took the steps two at a time, broad shoulders relaxed, as he approached Ozzie. Ozzie waved, and Hudson’s grin widened. God, thatgrin. The kind that took over his wholeface and made you believe for half a second that you were his entire world.
I’d made him laugh like that once. Pulled that deep belly laugh out of him with some stupid joke or a lick behind his ear. Now it was Ozzie getting the sound. And I hated that I noticed. Hated that even though I knew Ozzie was fucking my dad, it didn’t set my mind at ease seeing him interact with Hudson. Because if he could cheat on my brother with our father, would he hesitate sleeping with Hudson as well?
Unlike me, Hudson was a versatile bisexual. But he’d once admitted I was the only man he’d ever felt safe enough to bottom for, and after that, he hadn’t missed being the one on top. I couldn’t imagine him any other way. He wasmine. Built to ride me, to take me deep and come apart doing it.
The first time he let me in—his first time bottoming with any man—he’d trembled beneath me, and I’d barely lasted thirty seconds before spilling inside him. The second time, though… the second time he’d rocked back on his heels, took every inch, and showed me how wrong I’d been to think any one of us was completely in charge.
Ozzie met him at the top of the steps, already reaching for the child. “There’s my favorite breakfast date,” he said brightly, and Ivy giggled as she leaned into him.
Hudson’s smile stretched wide, unguarded. “She woke up asking about you.”
His genuinely happy laugh punched the air from my lungs. Not because it was loud and honest and full of something I used to get from him, but because it wasfor Ozzie. He didn’t laugh like that with me anymore. Hell, he didn’tlookat me anymore. Not really. He looked through me and past me, but never at me.
Their conversation turned hushed, and I frowned. What did they have to talk about? They had nothing in common.For people who’d just met, they talked for too long. Too casually. Like they’d done this a dozen mornings already. Ozzie brushed curls back from Ivy’s face while Hudson adjusted her tiny backpack, and all of it so damn domestic it made my chest ache.
I stepped forward, gravel crunching under my boots louder than it needed to. “We gonna stand around all day or get to work?”
Heads turned toward me. Ozzie blinked, and Hudson’s smile disappeared like someone had flipped a switch.
